Bangkok has never been an easy city to cross. Pavements narrow into nothing, motorbikes lurch out from nowhere and every small errand turns into an endurance test of exhaust fumes. For decades the default response has been the same: take a car, close the windows, hope for the best. And yet something quieter has been gathering at the edges – a fleet of small, pale blue electric buses that ask, very simply, what if we went about this differently?
These buses are called the BMA Feeder and, unlike so many good ideas in this city, they are free. They run on batteries, their air-conditioning works and they seem entirely uninterested in honking. The stated ambition is lofty – tempt people away from private vehicles, slice a little off the city’s famously jammed roads and clean up the air in the process – but the experience is surprisingly gentle. Step inside one and Bangkok slows down for a moment.
The first phase of the Feeder was tentative. Two routes became the proof of concept:
- Wat Puranawas – Opposite Phra Phuttha Yodfa Bridge (Memorial Bridge) (Daily, 6am-8pm)
- Thonburi Market – MRT Lak Song (Daily, 6am-8pm)
Other early experiments disappeared quietly, which is how these things usually go. And then something unusual happened. It expanded.
Now the city has added new lines that try to knit together the frayed edges of daily life:
- Din Daeng – BTS Sanam Pao (Daily, 6am-8pm)
- Samsen Road – Tang Hua Seng Department Store, Thonburi (Daily, 6am-8pm)
- Kheha Romklao Community – Airport Rail Link Lat Krabang (Daily, 6am-8pm)
- MRT Bang Khun Non – Taling Chan Floating Market (Weekends, Daily, 6am-8pm)
It is not a cure for Bangkok’s chaos – nothing ever is – but it is a sign that someone in City Hall has looked at the traffic and decided not to shrug. And maybe that matters more than we think.
Full maps, stops and timetables visit BMA Feeder right here.